Field of the Invention
The present technique relates to a program development support device, a non-transitory storage medium storing thereon a computer-readable program development support program, and a program development support method for supporting development of a safety program to be executed in a safety controller.
Description of the Background Art
In order to safely use machines for use at many manufacturing sites, safety equipment (safety components) in compliance with international standards should be used. The safety equipment is intended to prevent people's safety from being threatened by automatically moving devices such as robots. Such safety equipment includes a safety controller which executes a safety program, as well as detection equipment which detects the presence or intrusion of a person, input equipment which receives operation in case of emergency, output equipment which actually stops manufacturing equipment, and the like.
In association with the development of such a safety program, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2015-018553 discloses a configuration of using one or more state machine function blocks which can be easily integrated into a functional block diagram for programming an environment, for a control system and a safety system in a process plant.
A document indicating contents of a safety program is important in evaluating functional safety of an entire system including a safety controller. In particular, after a safety program created on a personal computer or the like is transferred to a safety controller, an operation to directly modify the safety program executed on the safety controller and various settings (typically referred to as “online editing” or the like) may be performed, and there may be a case where the safety program on the safety controller is inconsistent with the safety program on the personal computer. There may also be a case where an output document itself may be falsified. Accordingly, in particular in evaluating functional safety, it is necessary to carefully handle the document.